Clandon Park House Restoration confirmed

18 January 2016

On page 112 of the February issue of House & Garden, features
director David Nicholls talks to individuals connected with Clandon
Park House, the historic home of the Onslow family, which was
reduced to a blackened shell following a fire in April 2015. Today
the National Trust confirmed that it will restore parts of Clandon
Park to their "original glory"

Designed by Venetian architect Giacomo Leoni in the 1720s, with
gardens by Capability Brown added half a century later, Clandon was
given to the National Trust in 1956 and attracted 56,000 visitors a
year prior to the fire. In the February issue of House &
Garden Features Director David Nicholls hears the accounts of
individuals connected to Clandon Park, whose stories reflect a
shared sense of sadness, regret and hope for its future.

Today the Telegraph reports that the National Trust will
undertake what it has called its "biggest conservation
project in a generation", inviting architects to submit
plans to return the ground floor of the stately home to
its original 18th century layout. The building's less
architecturally significant upper floors to be turned in
to spaces for exhibitions, events and
performances.

'Our plans involve returning parts
of the house to its 18th century glory whilst at the same time
creating a building of beauty and relevance for the 21st
century,' Dame Helen Ghosh, the Trust's director general
told the
Telegraph.

'The loss of so many of the contents of the house means that we
cannot return it to how it looked the day before the fire. However,
we now know more about the original layout and recognise that the
enduring significance of the house is its architecture and so we
would like to return it to the 18th century design - making it a
purer, more faithful version of Clandon as it was when it was first
built.'

'I hadn't seen in situ the often-criticised decorations carried
out by John Fowlerthough
I knew them from photographs and found his unconventional approach
inspiring,' says interior designer Nicky Haslam on p115 of the
February issue of House & Garden, refering to the
extensive restoration and redecoration under the
legendary English decorator in the
Sixties.

'Fowler strove for appropriateness
ratherthan slavish authenticity. He
somehow knew what would bring the rooms alive; his newer
colours and wallpapers didn't alter the building's architectural
integrity. He added a vivacity needed to display the furniture and porcelain. He understood
theneed to freshen rather than
repeat. And it should be remembered that, what has been lost in this tragic fire was as
much a record of mid-twentieth-century taste, layered
onto the original.'